Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord has filed suit against the Gaming Control Board, claiming the board has “systematically” barred his full participation in its business. The Gaming Control Board subsequently issued a statement indicating the treasurer could participate as long as he signs a confidentiality agreement and code of ethics.

Gov. Ed Rendell addressed the issue during a Capitol press conference. “He’s not being shut out,” Rendell said. “All he has to do is like everyone else sign a confidentiality agreement and he’s in. He’s in. All he has to do is sign that confidentiality agreement. ... That’s all he has to do.”

According to McCord, he agreed to do that in February, but no one at the Gaming Control Board has provided him the paper work, despite his request they do so. McCord says he is entitled to participate “by law, not by permission of other board members. ... and that’s the nub of the issue.”

He is not withdrawing the suit.

“It’s not about confidentiality agreements, and it never has been,” said McCord’s senior adviser, Corinna Wilson. “There are important legal questions to be resolved. He has a legal right to be there. It still seems they are ‘allowing’ him to attend rather than facilitating the lawful exercise of his rights.”

McCord also claims the board has made a “veiled threat” against him if he persists, and his lawsuit provides a glimpse into a longer history of Gaming Control Board reluctance to open their sessions to the treasurer.

Under the law, the treasurer is an “ex officio” member of the board, which McCord said “isn’t a limitation, but simply an explanation that the treasurer serves by virtue of his office.”

Regular members of the Gaming Control Board are appointed by the governor and leaders of the House and Senate.

Under the law, McCord said, the only difference between him and regular members is he is allowed to campaign and run for office and he is not allowed to vote. Otherwise, they are the same: bound by the same confidentiality provisions and allowed to participate in all other aspects of oversight.

The treasurer is being advised by attorney Chris Craig, who helped write the gaming law when he was legislative counsel under former Sen. Vince Fumo.

According to the lawsuit, Gaming Control Board chairman and former Rendell chief of staff Gregory Fajt has insisted since September that the treasurer’s role on the board is more “limited.”

According to the suit, on Feb. 16 after McCord agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement, Fajt told McCord’s chief counsel and chief of staff that the treasurer still could not attend executive sessions or have access to confidential information.

McCord said he called Fajt afterward, and Fajt said the treasurer would be allowed into executive sessions, and a designee would be allowed to participate in regular board meetings.

McCord said the Gaming Control Board then failed to inform him when some executive sessions were being held.

The treasurer’s chief of staff, John Lisko, attended the March 3 public meeting and asked questions of Steve Wynn, who at the time was proposing to finance and run Foxwoods Casino in Philadelphia.

McCord said one month later, on April 9, he and Lisko were asked to a meeting with Gaming Control Board member James Ginty, who handed McCord an unsigned memo from the Gaming Control Board critiquing Lisko’s questions and McCord’s interest.

McCord said, “It was handed to me, saying ‘This is why you don’t want to get involved.’” He and Ginty have a “friendly acquaintanceship,” McCord said.

McCord said “I really believe (the memo) is a veiled threat” that persistence would result in political backlash.

He said he has no connection to the Foxwoods project and no agenda other than providing scrutiny and transparency as the only member of the board elected by the citizens of Pennsylvania. “By law, the people are entitled to the scrutiny of the treasurer” in Gaming Control Board business, McCord said. “History tells us legalized gaming in America doesn’t always get it right."

A prepared statement from the Gaming Control Board said, “While we are mystified by the tack he is taking, we are confident in our interpretation of the Gaming Act and ... we recognize that the treasurer certainly has the right to seek the court’s interpretation on this matter.”

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